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Letters: Heisenberg’s bomb

Published 10 October 1992

From
RUDOLF PEIERLS

The article by Dan Charles ‘Heisenberg’s principles kept bomb from Nazis,’
(This Week, 5 September) flies in the face of well-documented facts. Heisenberg
concluded that making a nuclear bomb required a greater effort than Germany
could afford in wartime. He was right, because even the Americans, with
greater industrial potential and not exposed to bombing, did not complete
it before the defeat of Germany.

He did know what it takes to make an atom bomb and explained this on
many occasions to physicists and ministers alike. Because he regarded this
as prohibitively difficult, he did not trouble to make a …